Chapter 6

Six-Tess
I awoke the next morning in a bed I wasn’t used to. I had had the best night’s sleep I could remember and chalked it up to an expensive mattress. I felt as if I were floating on air as I got dressed and ready to head over to the Lepolsky’s. I skipped down the hall and plopped down at the kitchen table. I could feel James’ eyes on me. He had on a smile that must have been the twin to the one I was wearing. I would never admit this to anyone, but after last night, I believed in true love. And I believed James was the One.
“Good morning,” I said softly. James’ smile widened, if that was possible, and I felt as light as a cloud.
“Good morning, yourself,” he purred. Shivers ran up and down my spine and I felt electricity in the air. He loaded his bowl in the dishwasher and kissed my cheek. “Can I get you some cereal?” He asked. Then it all came crashing back to me.
“No, I can’t eat cereal,” I said. James looked extremely confused. Then he thought for a minute before it clicked the fact that if I had only bought cereal, maybe Dad wouldn’t have been so angry at me.
“Sure, sorry. Do you like blueberry Pop-Tarts?” He asked. I smiled and nodded.
“Thanks, that sounds wonderful,” I told him. James’ mom, who insisted I called her Trudy, walked in and poured herself some Raisin Bran. She sat down and smiled knowingly at me. I blushed and looked away, why hadn’t I figured living with my boyfriend and his mother would be awkward at times? This was especially the case if she was going to encourage our relationship and try to give me tips.
Yes, last night when I was in my room Trudy knocked on the door and asked to come in. I told her she could, it was her house after all, and she began to tell me makeup secrets that she thought I could use. She told me what made guys go “wild”, her words. I had never worn much makeup, it was fairly expensive, and she’d brought me a whole case full. I didn’t know how to use half of it and she said she’d be glad to help me if I had any questions. It was almost like she was trying to bond with me. Then she started talking about love and I really felt sick. I told her that I was tired, and she left me alone, but I didn’t know how long that would work. I looked over at James as his mom sat down. He raised an eyebrow.
“Hello, you two,” Trudy said, “Did you sleep well last night, dear?” She asked. I nodded.
“Very well, actually, I have never slept in such a comfortable bed before,” I told her. Trudy seemed shocked, and why wouldn’t she be. I would be too if I had grown up with such luxuries.
“Really? What kind of mattress did you have?” She asked. I ate a last bite of my Pop-Tart before responding.
“Well, my sister, Jillian, and I shared my parents’ old mattress, it had a hole at one end, but it worked,” I said. Trudy looked at me as though I were something to be pitied.
“Hey, Mom, how’s Louise? Did she enjoy her first night here?” James asked. I mouthed him a quick thank you. The question brightened his mother’s eyes.
“I think she really did, oh this is the beginning of a new phase in our lives!” Trudy squealed. It was almost too much for me, the excitement, and the expense. James looked at me and winked.
“New and better things are here,” he said. I blushed and hoped he was correct.
My plans for the foreseeable future were simple; I would work for the Lepolsky family and earn enough money to get a place for me and Jillian. I wanted nothing more than to have her back. I missed Jillian so much it hurt, I almost felt bad for the brief happiness I felt being with James, but I knew that was insane. If I felt bad for everything good that happened to me, my father would win. I couldn’t give him that satisfaction. I walked over to the Lepolsky house and rang the bell. A minute later the door opened and a guy rushed out, knocking me over in the process. Papers he’d been carrying had spilled all over the place and I immediately stood to help him pick them up. This must be Owen, the friend of James’ that had known him for ten years. Owen looked way more athletic than James; he didn’t have the slight artist build. I wondered if they actually had much in common besides their parents being friends.
“Sorry about that, didn’t see you, which is odd because I usually can sense a pretty girl a mile away,” he said. Wow, I bet he got good use of that line. I handed him the papers.
“I guess it only detects the single or wealthy ones. I am neither. Your mom might have told you, I’m the new maid,” I told him. He nodded and gave me a sly smile.
“Hired help, this could be interesting,” he said, contemplatively.
“You forgot I’m taken. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t waste my time on guys who obviously don’t know when to draw the line,” I told him. He shrugged like this is something that could easily be remedied. “You know my boyfriend,” I continued. This seemed to take him off guard.
“Who is it? I’m very good at talking people into things,” he said. This guy never quit!
“He lives in that house,” I said pointing at James’ house, the one in which I currently resided as well.
“No way, he finally…are you…? He’s had a huge thing for you for so long and he finally asked you out?” Owen asked. I nodded.
“I bet you feel stupid now,” I said with a smile. Owen put an arm around my shoulders which I felt to be extremely uncalled for.
“Girl, I never feel stupid for flirting with someone pretty, but I do intend to keep our relationship purely professional,” he told me. I smiled; I could understand how James might like this guy.
“Well, that’s good, it was nice to meet you,” I said. He nodded, held the door open for me, and rushed past. I stepped into the foyer, and like the day before, marveled at the largeness of the house. Mrs. Lepolsky told me to look for her in the kitchen if Owen or her husband answered the door. I walked in and she was standing there writing in a notebook. Looking back, I wish I would have burned that notebook in the toaster. She looked up and smiled at me before putting down the pen.
“Miss Euler, you’re right on time,” she said in a cheery voice, which had to be fake. I was actually five minutes early.
“Punctuality is my middle name,” I joked. She looked at me sympathetically.
“Poor people will name their children anything, I swear,” she commented. A flame lit my cheeks and I restrained myself from responding. I knew correcting her might get me fired. She handed me the notebook and I looked down at the small handwriting. “These are just a few things I need finished today,” she said. Was she kidding? This was far from “just a few things”. There had to be at least twenty items on the list. I felt doomed. I knew complaining or even thinking negatively wouldn’t help, besides, I was doing this to get Jillian back, it could be worse.
That afternoon I got back to the house just a little bit before James since he had art club after school and it lasted until five. I sat down; baffled by the sheer amount of times I was slyly belittled during work. Mrs. Lepolsky never said anything directly about the fact that I was poor, after that first remark, but she hinted that I was lower than her, unaccustomed to the way things should be done “in higher society”. I was exhausted. The list she gave me took all day; having a lunch break was not on the list. Apparently poor people don’t eat. I rested my head on the table and James walked in.
“Rough day?” He asked. I moaned as a sign of affirmation. He sat next to me and kissed my hair.
“Did I become a pack mule over night?” I asked him. He laughed.
“I don’t think so. Did Mrs. Lepolsky really work you that hard?” I nodded.
“I was busy from the minute I got there until the minute I left. She has me do so much, and apparently she thinks poor people don’t need to eat because I was not given a lunch break,” I told him. I knew I sounded whiny, but if you couldn’t whine to your boyfriend, who could you whine to?
“I’m sorry, I’ll talk to Owen, and maybe he’ll convince her. I don’t think she would purposely not allow you to eat though,” James said. He hugged me and I rested my head on his chest.
“I met Owen this morning,” I told him. He smiled.
“What did you think?” He asked expectantly. I could see in his eyes that he really was good friends with Owen.
“He tried to flirt with me, but once I told him we were together he admitted defeat,” I said with a rueful smile. James smirked as well.
“Ah, he saw he couldn’t match my sheer brilliance, huh? He’s completely correct,” James said. I laughed. I was glad to be here instead of my old place. Once I thought that though, I was thinking about Jillian. I wondered if she liked Grandma Pearl. I wondered if she missed me as much as I missed her. I missed her so much. Grandma Pearl and I weren’t close though, and calling her would be impossible because I didn’t know her number. “Hey, are you alright?” James asked sweetly. He rubbed a small tear from my eye. I didn’t notice my own tears.
“Do you think she misses me?” I asked. He didn’t have to ask me who I meant. He nodded and pulled me closer.
“Of course she misses you! You practically raised her, but letting her go with your grandma was probably best, she couldn’t stay there. You did the right thing,” he said softly. I nodded, wanting to believe letting her go was the best. He continued to whisper in my ear. I was so exhausted and I couldn’t stop crying. Eventually I couldn’t cry anymore and I sat up straighter. I rubbed my eyes and looked James in the face.
“Sorry for being so emotional,” I told him. He shook his head.
“It’s fine. You miss your sister, I understand,” he said. “You want to get something to eat?” I nodded, I was so hungry.
“I couldn’t want anything more at this moment,” I told him. We got into his car and drove to Sonic. I ordered two corn dogs and a thing of tater tots, he did the same. “Copier,” I teased him. He smiled.
“Copying is the highest form of flattery,” he told me. I laughed. He popped a tater tot into his mouth and took a pull on our shared large coke. I bit into my corn dog and remembered how this used to be a staple in my diet.
“My mom and I used to come here every Saturday when she was pregnant with Jillian,” I said, “She said it was good for the baby, but I knew she just wanted to get out of the house. We used to talk about everything here.” James nodded. I was pretty sure this was the first time I brought my mom up in front of him. I never usually talked about her.
“What happened with your mom? I mean, how’d she die?” James asked. He looked concerned, like he thought my dad did it. But this wasn’t the case, well, not entirely.
“She…she killed herself. It happened a month after she brought Jillian home. She took too many of the pills the doctor gave her after the C-section…” I said.
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” James said. I didn’t cry then, I had stopped crying for my mother months ago. James looked me in the eye. He wanted to know what I was thinking. “It wasn’t unexpected, at least not by me. I had told my dad to get her help. He refused to believe anything was wrong. Still believes it was all an accident,” I said. I shook my head.
There was no way that could have been an accident. He would know this if he’d been there. The day it happened. The whole month before. She was broken, completely broken, inside. I hated to admit this, but I had wanted to escape it all so much sometimes that I had just thought, long and hard about doing the same thing she did. But I couldn’t run. I had to take care of Jillian. Running would only make things worse for her. I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t as far gone as Mom was. I was starting to break too, but not to the extent Mom had broken. I could still be repaired; at least I hoped I could be. I had something she hadn’t, I had people to support me, take the burden when it became to heavy. I just stared out the window for what seemed like hours, but was only around five minutes. James didn’t say anything; he just put his hand on my shoulder.
“I’m so sorry,” he told me. I shrugged.
“It’s nothing you could have prevented. She was depressed,” she wasn’t the only one. The cuts on my arms could vouch for that.